Strange Inc. is a Muslim nonprofit institution for peace-driven creativity, restorative artistry, and Muslim creative culture.
Founded 2014. 501(c)(3). Archived at the New York Public Library.
Our Mission
Strange Inc. exists for Muslim creatives who want to make work that actually means something — and need a place that takes that seriously.
Why We Exist
Something is happening to Muslim creative life.
There is more output than ever — more content, more voices, more visibility. And yet many Muslim creatives feel more fragmented, not less. More exposed, not more rooted.
Strange Inc. was built for a different question.
Not how do we get more seen — but what are we creating from?
We believe the most powerful thing a Muslim community can do right now is restore the inner life of its makers — so that what they build, write, and offer comes from truth rather than fracture.
Every Muslim is a maker. You make meaning, decisions, relationships, stories, spaces, work. The question is not whether you create — it is what you are creating from.
We believe creativity is stewardship, not self-expression. The capacity to make is a trust from Allah — Al-Khāliq — and what we form and offer is a question of character, not talent. When creative work is connected to its source, it heals. When it is disconnected, it distorts.
Research from the World Health Organization, Harvard, and a century of Islamic scholarship — from al-Balkhi to al-Ghazālī — points to the same truth: the inner life of the maker shapes everything that comes from them.
Strange Inc. builds at that intersection.
Strange Inc. does not build Muslim identity through resistance.
It restores Muslim identity through remembrance.
What We Do
We build the conditions for Muslim creatives to do serious, lasting work.
Formation & Education
Through the Creative Path, we work with Muslim creatives — online, in masajid, and in community — not just on what they make, but on who is making it.
Publishing
Strange Inc. Press exists for Muslim literary work that deserves a serious home. We publish with care, not volume.
Recognition & Resourcing
The Beautiful Seeds Grant, the Creative Excellence Awards, and Halal Reads exist because Muslim creatives deserve infrastructure — not just encouragement.
Gathering
Muslim Creatives Fest is our annual gathering — in-person and online. A space where the work is formed, not performed.
What We Stand On
Remembrance before output.
We do not create to be seen. We create from a place of orientation — returning, again and again, to what we are actually for.
We do not create alone.
Formation happens in community. The work of becoming a more rooted creative is not a solo project.
Beauty is medicine.
What we make should settle something in the person who receives it. That is the standard we hold, and the one we help others reach.
We build for what lasts.
Every program, publication, and gathering is made with the next generation in mind — not the next notification.
Truth without spectacle.
We name what is broken — in creative culture, in our communities, in ourselves — without turning the wound into a performance.
How We Work
Tawḥīd-centered
Everything begins with right orientation — not output.
Institution-first
We are built on structure, not personality. The work outlasts any individual.
Formation Over Performance
We form the maker before the work.
Restrained by Design
We do not move fast. We move with care.
Built for the Long Work
Strange Inc. is not built for this moment. It is built for today, yesterday and tomorrow.
Art from peace. Peace through art.